LOS ANGELES – It was a lesson, a lesson in baseball, an Angel teaching a Dodger.

Here we are, almost a full day later, and I can’t figure out why everyone is acting like the development from Monday’s game is news.

In case you haven’t noticed, the Angels have been teaching the Dodgers about baseball for years.

They haven’t lost a season series to the Dodgers since 2006, have won 16 of the previous 24 meetings and, let’s be honest, if these two clubs ever do share the same World Series, the Angels will win in a sweep, right, if not sooner?

For the Dodgers’ sake, it’s a good thing a judge didn’t intervene at some point and declare that the better of the two teams be awarded sole custody of the name “Los Angeles.” The Elysian Park Dodgers? Doesn’t sound very imposing.

Yet, many in the media here are carrying on before the game Tuesday about how Albert Pujols schooled Yasiel Puig on Monday, apparently shocked that a three-time MVP could get the better of a 23-year-old who just last month played in his 200th big league game.

They’re asking both managers about the play and the animated reactions that followed and both are trying to defuse the discussion. Don Mattingly says, “There’s no reason to stir things up,” the Dodgers’ manager obviously unaware of how much help baseball sometimes needs to not be boring.

Pujols tagged up from first base and advanced – doing so on 34-year-old legs – on a routine fly out to Puig in center during the eighth inning.

Puig handled the chance entirely too passively, something the Dodgers can only wish he’d do when operating a motor vehicle.

The circumstances resulted in a player of marginal speed moving up on one of the game’s most electrifying outfield arms, and, next thing you know, Chris Iannetta will be smacking around Clayton Kershaw.

Pujols took advantage of Puig’s lapse and embarrassed the young star, a stadium full of 50,000-plus an uncomfortable place to be reminded that, as a professional ballplayer, you’re expected to at least pay attention.

But, hey, when those 50,000-plus are helping pay your salary, it certainly isn’t asking too much to do the absolute minimum.

Soon after the play, Puig and Pujols exchanged dismissive gestures and on-field words. But before the situation could become really interesting, the teachers again had put away the pupils, this time by a score of 5-0, the Dodgers likely needing 20 innings to score off Garrett Richards.

Puig was completely wrong to take exception to Pujols tagging up, even with the Angels comfortably ahead. Pujols was just “playing baseball,” according to Angels manager Mike Scioscia, the Angels paying Pujols $23 million to do just that this season.

And, yes, they rightly expect to get their money’s worth.

Puig simply was reacting emotionally, something he has done – for better and worse – frequently during his still brief time with the Dodgers.

Here’s hoping he doesn’t change, Puig being one of the most interesting and entertaining players in a game that often is as interesting and entertaining as long division.

Baseball famously is the sport without a clock. But it’s the sport that most needs a buzzer, just to sound occasionally to make sure everyone’s still awake.

No, Puig isn’t alone in dozing at times, and, if you think about it, why wouldn’t a few more of the Dodgers drift off when playing the Angels? With the results so often a foregone conclusion, it’s not like they need to stay tuned to see how everything turns out.

Since he was hired by the Angels, Scioscia is 52-32 against the team for which he established himself as a player. During that time, he also has won a World Series. The Dodgers haven’t won a title since Scioscia was their catcher.

In other words, the Dodgers were smart enough to find Puig playing in Cuba but failed to identify the value of someone in their own home, even after Scioscia returned to serve as a coach for the team in 1997-98.

Well, Iannetta’s two-run double off Kershaw in the second inning sends this game in a familiar direction, a direction Juan Uribe reverses loudly just moments later with a three-run homer off Hector Santiago.

Of course, since this is the Angels against the Dodgers, the Angels come back to pull even 3-3 in the third and 4-4 in the eighth, and why don’t teachers ever make things easy for their pupils?

The Dodgers eventually win, 5-4, with a run in the bottom of the ninth, the shock evidently so great that they mob and maul Andre Ethier as if he hit the ball out of the stadium instead of producing a weak ground ball that results in a game-ending error.

The teams now head to Angel Stadium for games Wednesday and Thursday. Here’s guessing the education will continue.

If not, that would be real news, the Dodgers regaining a grip on “L.A.,” these kings of Elysian Park.

Jeff Miller has been a sports columnist since 1998, having previously written for the Palm Beach Post, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald. He began at the Register in 1995 as beat writer for the Angels.

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